Breathing
by CoMiCalMe
Summary: “Hermione,” whispered across her thoughts and she screamed: “Just leave me alone!” Tis be my first fic. I'm literate though, so that should be an encouraging factor to reading it! DMHG ONE SHOT! R&R! Rated T for paranoia's sake.


**A.N: I finally wrote a fic! It took me all this time to do it but I finally decided to actually submit one. Of course, I could have done a lot better, but to be quite honest, I don't give a flying (insert bad word here). I don't care if it's amateurish because my intent wasn't for it to be AMAZING. I only hope it isn't so dreadfully terrible that you want to slit your wrists by the time your done reading it.**

**Forgive my cynicism and ENJOY! **

**P.S. I do NOT OWN any of the Harry Potter Characters!!!**

_I can't breathe! _

_Is that you standing there?_

_It's not your it begins to beat._

Hermione quickly ran up the steps to the astronomy tower, her heart pounding loud in her ears and tears streaming down her face. She just couldn't seem to stop, even though exhaustion was near and she felt like throwing up, she just couldn't get her feet to stop moving. To be honest, she didn't even know why she was so upset in the first place. It's not like he even noticed her. For all she was, and would ever be, is a fly on the wall, the gum on the bottom of his shoe, or the _last_ person he would ever be caught looking at.

Or at least, that was what she thought in her own blissful ignorance for the past six years. Then something suddenly just… changed. At first it shocked her. Disgusted her even. But then she began to notice how much he had changed. How sincere he truly was being and that's how it all started. How she had gotten herself here in the first place. It was all because of _him._

---flashback---

Upon entering her twisted living arrangement she was immediately thrown against the wall and ravished by an unsuspected person. She didn't even have time to register what was happening. He had just come on her so quickly. She was the perfect victim: frail and inexperienced. It was just how he liked them(Forgive me, I can't help but make Draco sound like the naughty boy he is). Since the beginning of the term he had watched her from afar. Silently waiting for his moment to strike. It was only a matter of time until he made her his. Though, despite what everyone else might think, he did this out of an entirely different reason: love.

Sure it was little drastic, but he couldn't help himself any longer. All this time without touching that pale, creamy, flesh of hers, which she so gladly flaunted now that she actually had some confidence. It was just all too much for him to handle. Especially after his insane epiphany over the summer. For the strangest reason he realized why he had been mean to her all those years and why he would now have her and make up for it. Love often made people do crazy and irrational things, so in Draco's defense he wasn't technically in the right state of mind as he continued to kiss down her neck while his hands wandered into lower places.

By this point Hermione had obviously figured out her creeper. I mean, it was a little difficult not to with hair like his and hands that she had wanted to touch her for as long as she could remember. It was as soon as she figured out who he was that she stopped resisting. Sometime during the time that Draco figured out he loved her, Hermione found herself having the same epiphany(coincidental? I think not). Since then she had watched him from afar much like he had done, trying to figure out ways to make him hers. So she began to flaunt what she had once kept hidden and tried in vain to get his attention.

Clearly she had gotten his attention. And after that things just escaladed from there. They moved from the wall to Hermione's bedroom and that was the first time the two of them were together. It was the first time the two of them made love.

---End Flashback---

_Come quick!the waters up to my neck,and I can barely breathe,yet all you say is_

_"Take it slowly!"_

The stairs seemed to go on forever. She felt like there would never be an ending. Like her nightmare would never stop. No matter how hard she tried, she just couldn't get his voice out of her head. It was the same thing over and over. A soft whisper of "_Hermione."_ It was like a bad horror movie. Hermione was finally at her breaking point. But it would all be over soon. She would make sure of that.

Paying attention to the stairs was becoming more and more difficult as she continued to think about him. Her breath started coming in pants and her once frantic steps up the stairs turned into a slow trot.

---Flashback---

"Are you serious, Hermione?!" Harry screamed for the umpteenth time since she'd told him the news and all Hermione could do was stare.

She had expected this kind of reaction from Ron, but from Harry? It was just unthinkable. She never knew he could even get this angry. Harry, who had always been the calmest of the three of them, even though it always looked like Hermione, she was just the most logical, was honestly yelling. It was a pretty fearsome sight to behold : his face was beat red, with spit every once in a while flying out of his mouth, and he was pacing back and forth across the room like he was prepared to charge at any moment.

Harry seemed to be the only one thoroughly this pissed off. Ginny, as she had expected, has immediately accepted the idea and since then had been trying to calm down her boyfriend.

"Harry," Ginny started slowly, lightly touching him on the arm to get his attention, "Maybe you should sit down?"

The look he gave her would have stopped Voldemort himself to drop dead and die. To Ginny though, it merely made her give a light whimper and had her sitting in her chair immediately.

Hermione gave Ginny a thankful and apologetic look before she turned her attention to Ron. "Ron, don't tell me your angry about this too?"

Ron looked flabbergasted at her question and it took him three times to actually form a coherent sentence. "A-are you serious?! Did you honestly think that I, the boy who has liked you since I met you, wouldn't be angry?!"

Hermione flinched at his words which felt like a thousand knives had been thrown at her. His response, unlike Harry's, had been expected. She had wished, though, that he would be a bit more understanding.

With her head down in shame, she responded, "N…no. I guess not." Lifting her head up, she looked at Ron with pleading brown eyes, "I don't know what else to say but that I'm sorry… will you ever forgive me?"

If she hadn't have given him the eyes he was almost positive he would have said no. Unfortunately, that was not the case and he couldn't help but forgive her. She was, after all, his Hermione, regardless of the fact that she was now going to be shared with someone else. Even if that someone else was Draco Malfoy.

Hermione's lips were just beginning to stretch into a smile when she was suddenly smacked in the face by a very strong force. Her head whipped back from the force, causing to her stumble backwards and onto her bum.

With her hand to her face, she looked up to see an even more pissed of Harry towering over her with rage in his eyes. He looked deranged. Like he wanted to do more than smack her across the face again. Even with that look, Hermione was rooted to her spot on the floor, tears now streaming down her face.

"H-harry?" came the sound of Ginny's quiet and reproachful voice.

Harry didn't even look at her. Instead, he gave Hermione one more bad look and stormed out of the room, Ron hurriedly, yet shakily, following suit.

---End Flashback---

_By slowly I assume you mean_

_that this will be another one, just like before,_

_Just like before,_

_I'm on my own. _

_Just like before,_

_ I'm on my my own._

_On my own.  
_

The memory ended abruptly as Hermione tripped on one of the steps, falling on her knees with a cry of pain.

"_Hermione," _whispered across her thoughts and she screamed: "Just leave me alone!"

With renewed determination Hermione got up off her feet and went up the stairs at a faster pace than from when she had started. Anyone that saw her on her way up would take one look at her and shake their heads, turning right back around and heading down. She looked a little, okay VERY, loony and the people passing her obviously had enough sense to leave her to her crazy self.

---Flashback---

The blade clanked to the floor, leaving a stream of blood in its wake. She had finally broken skin, bringing on the blissful sensation of sweet release. It was her only measures of doing so, never having been the kind of girl to take up drugs, and she found she liked it very much.

Her previously ragged breathing had now slowed to its normal pace and she began to bandage her wrist, trying to hide as much evidence as she could. This was easy of course since she had done this several times before. Hermione was a master at hiding any traces of her self-mutilation. Not even Ginny knew about it.

As she was almost finished cleaning up a gentle knock resounded through the bathroom and a voice ensued.

"Hey, Hermione what's taking you so long in there?" came Ginny's voice from the other end of the door.

Hermione had been in the bathroom for a good ten minutes now and Ginny was starting to get worried. She had put her head up to the door to listen for anything and that was when she heard a metal clank. It was the only sound she had heard the entire time. Well, that and heavy breathing, but Ginny had been sure she was just hearing things. Or at least, she had been until the metal clank. Now she wasn't so sure.

"Hermione!" She yelled, now pounding on the door frantically, "I'm going to break the door down in two seconds if you don't get your arse out here right now!"

With an urgency, Hermione completely forgot to hide the blade and opened the door with a fake reassuring smile on her face. Ginny did not, however, miss the fakeness of the smile or the glinting blade on the bathroom floor. It practically screamed "look at me!"

"What," she started, pushing Hermione aside and walking into the bathroom to bend down and retrieve the blade, "may I ask is _this_?"

Hermione didn't know how to respond. No one was supposed to ever find out about this…her guilty pleasure she called it and now Ginny had found out. She felt like dying, something she'd never really had the guts to obviously go through with, so instead she burst into tears.

What started out as soft crying turned into heart-wrenching sobbing and Ginny couldn't compose herself much longer after that, crying along with Hermione and moving closer to hold Hermione in an embrace.

"H-he's r-r-really not c-coming back Is-is he?" Hermione said, barely getting the words out of her mouth.

Not knowing how to respond to that, Ginny remained silent and continued to hold Hermione.

---End Flashback---

_I can't breathe!_

_Is that you standing there?_

_It can't be your heart. _

_Cause it's not like before. _

_Watch as it falls apart!_

Hermione had finally made it to the top of the stairs; the top of the Astronomy tower. Her mission was almost complete. She had made it all the way up here completely undetected by her friends. They all thought she was studying in the library just like old times. Nothing weird or out of place about that she had convincingly told herself before she'd made her way up here in the first place. It was with that knowledge that had given her the courage to make today _the day_. She was finally going to do it.

Making her way over to the window, she closed her eyes and allowed the comfort of the wind to ease some of her nerves. A sigh of ease escaped her lips and then her eyes snapped open. She was ready.

Hermione carefully climbed onto the ledge of the window and viewed the landscape of Hogwarts. This would be the last time she saw it and all its glory, the last time she would ever be in the astronomy tower. She has specifically picked this place because of all its great memories. One memory she would cherish forever.

---Flashback---

A giggle escaped her lips as his lips roamed lower down her neck, his hot breath tickling her skin as he went.

"Now, stop that," she playfully swiped at him, "What was the reason we came up here again, other than the obvious?"

Draco stopped kissing her and his piercing gray eyes met her honey brown with a little sparkle hidden behind all that swirling loveliness. Today was going to be the day. He had been prepared for it for a long time. Ever since he'd had his epiphany over the summer. And now he was finally going to get to fulfill it.

"Hermione," he said her name with nothing but love in his eyes, his voice, and his face, "will you marry me?"

Hermione squealed(yes she squealed) in excitement and threw herself at him, "Of course!"

---End Flashback---

_With this heart you take,_

_my pain._

_With this heart you break,_

_these chains._

With one last look and deep breath, she took her foot off the ledge and fell.

That last thing she saw before everything went black was Draco's ghostly figure floating in front of her while he uttered: "_Hermione."_

**A.N: Hokay, so the soul purpose for this fic came from my most favoritess song called Breathing, hence the title, by Progress in Color. I didn't use all of the lyrics and I probably didn't do the song much justice with this fic but, as I stated earlier, I wasn't trying to make an amazing fic. I just wanted to write. I hope you enjoyed it. Review as you'd like. **


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